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Be Active Every Day During Go4Life Month!
September 2015 has been designated Go4Life Month, in collaboration with the White House Conference on Aging. 

 

In September, the campaign will celebrate Go4Life Month with the theme "Be Active Every Day!"   

 

For more information about Go4Life  

 
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August-September 2015
Executive Director Anne Ornelas
We are more than mid-way through the summer, and many of you have been busy with your families, on vacations to some wonderful places, or with other local activities and interests. One of the key reasons many of you have joined is for the social activities, workshops, and outings. Over the past few months your Village has offered some great programs and activities and we hope to see you at the programs coming up in August.

 

On  August 11, you can learn about interior design with aging in place innovations to accommodate your current and future needs. Next, on August 13, our friends at Atria Valley View in Walnut Creek have extended an invitation to their educational and entertaining presentation on what research says about how lifestyle practices impact brain fitness, and about the differences between everyday forgetfulness and dementia, with Dr. Linda Sasser. Finally, don't forget about our free, hands-on legal workshop to help you understand and complete some of the basic estate planning forms, held on August 19. We welcome anyone to attend these events!

 

September and October programs and activities are in development. Lafayette Physical Therapy will present a balance assessment workshop with tips for fall prevention; several groups are planning the screening of Being Mortal by Dr. Atul Gawande, the wonderful new book that many of you may have read or are reading; and a Medicare open enrollment meeting hosted by our new community partner, John Muir Health. In October, we plan to support the Alzheimer's Association by joining their 4th Annual Walk to End Alzheimer's on October 17. We will send you more information on this event in the coming weeks.

 

Many of you have social circles you may have known for years. As a member of Lamorinda Village, you have the opportunity to increase this circle through engagement by creating member-initiated interest groups. Have you wanted to play bridge or other games, but need a few people to join in the fun? Maybe you joined one of the local gyms and need a gym buddy for support? Or perhaps you want to keep your creative juices flowing through knitting, crafting, or photography? How about a travel group to plan your next adventure with some Village friends?

 

If you are ready to help create an interest group, please let us know. We'd love to help you engage with others who have similar interests and to continue to build your community.

 

Best regards,

Anne   

Members Tour the Ruth Bancroft Garden

On July 21, 17 Village members and guests were treated to a guided tour of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek.  Several members mentioned that the docent was terrific; she even went beyond the scheduled hour (with permission of the group) to continue sharing her knowledge about the garden. She talked about many of the native and non-native plants and how Ruth Bancroft experimented with the layout and design to get the best results from the wide variety of succulents she had grown to collect. 

 

Bancroft Garden Tour
Lamorinda Village members tour the Ruth Bancroft Garden

 

 

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Lamorinda Village is Volunteers Helping Members

Shaking HandsIn June the Village office called all full members to invite them to use volunteer services. Eleanor S. needed help with her smoke alarm batteries, which are on a high point on wall. Rich T. was available and saw her over the weekend.

 

Eleanor was full of praise for Rich. "He arrived on time, was friendly and professional, and carried out the job with great care," she says. "He even cleaned up a dirty spot on the wall where the ladder had previously made a mark. He went the extra mile." Eleanor added that the social aspect of having someone help out is "very important. A lot of older people are isolated. I was very comfortable having him in my home."

Partnership with John Muir Health Will Support Village Members

In July Lamorinda Village and John Muir Health finalized an agreement to explore the potential for collaboration between John Muir Health and Lamorinda Village, with the intent of creating a model for other local Villages in the future.

 

The community partnership agreement broadly outlines three programs for the pilot phase: integrating Village and John Muir Health program offerings, developing a medpal program in which volunteers may accompany Village members to medical appointments, and developing a program for assisting with the coordination of care for Village members being released from the hospital.

 

As a beginning, in October the Village will offer a program for the Lamorinda community at which John Muir Health will provide information on open enrollment for Medicare. Another program will offer Village members access to John Muir Health classes on a variety of wellness topics.

 

Look for more information about this exciting opportunity in our next newsletter and in our weekly event announcements.

   

Questions and Answers About the Village

Several members have asked us whether Villages are operating in nearby communities where they have friends. Here is the contact information for Villages in the East Bay and one in the North Bay. Ashby and North Oakland Villages have been in operation for a few years, while the others in the list are still in development. Our movement is growing in the Bay Area!

 

Walnut Creek: (925) 956-1990 Email: walnutcreekvillage@gmail.com   

Website: http://www.walnutcreekvillage.org 

  

Clayton Valley: (925) 673-6767 Email: mxiaris@yahoo.com 

  

Ashby (in Berkeley): (510) 204-9200 Email: andy@ashbyvillage.org  

Website: http://www.ashbyvillage.org 

  

North Oakland: (510) 547-8500 Email: info@northoaklandvillage.org 

Website: http://www.northoaklandvillage.org 

  

Benicia: (707) 771-1217 Email: judiedonaldson1@gmail.com 

 

You can also search for Villages anywhere in the U.S. on the Village to Village Network website at http://www.vtvnetwork.org/

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Health and Fitness: Exercise Your Brain
Researchers are finding out more every year about how learning new information can help keep your brain healthy.  Here are three free online resources from the University of California. Who knows - you might decide to go back to school for another degree!

UC Berkeley Lectures On Line via YouTube
Did you know UC Berkeley has its own YouTube channel with hundreds of recorded UC Berkeley Lecture photo class lectures?  Go to the UC Berkeley YouTube site
https://www.youtube.com/user/UCBerkeley to see lectures by date posted. You can also click the "Playlists" link to view lectures by class, or the "Channels" link to see lectures offered by specific departments.  YouTube also offers a discussion forum.

 

Stream UC lectures and more on UCTV

 

UCTV Logo

University of California Television (UCTV) is a public-serving media outlet featuring programming from throughout the University of California. UCTV explores a broad spectrum of subjects for a general audience, including science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities, arts and music, business, education, and agriculture. Program formats include documentaries, faculty lectures, research symposia, artistic performances and more.

   

The UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy maintains an archive of webcasts on line, ranging from conversations between Robert Reich and Joseph Stiglitz on "The Great Divide" to healthcare reform to panel discussion on wealth and educational inequality.    

   

For more advice on healthy aging, check out these tips from the National Council on Aging

 

 

And just so you can exercise your laugh muscles as well, here's a little story someone sent to us...

 

A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story.  

 

"What's it about?", he asked.   "I don't know", she replied. "I can't read."

 

   

White House Conference on Aging
Materials and summaries from the White House Conference on Aging 2015 regional forums and national conference are available on the Conference website at http://www.whitehouseconferenceonaging.gov/.

 

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Lamorinda Village | info@lamorindavillage.org | http://www.lamorindavillage.org
P.O. Box 57
Lafayette, CA 94549